ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES. 



taehed to any particular spot, it is at the will of the waves^ 

 .not their own. 



Dr. B. In a majority of cases, no doubt your dis- 

 tinction will hold good, but a little better acquaintance 

 with Natural History would iurnish you with abundant 

 exceptions to it, as a general rule. Do you not recol- 

 lect those vast beds of muscles which we observed the 

 other day from the beach and those little shell-fish, 

 called Barnacles, adhering to the piers of the wharfs, 

 and the bottoms of vessels ? Not one of these creatures,, 

 as well as a multitude of others which might be men- 

 tioned, ever move from the spot where they originate. 



Emily. Well, Dr. B., no plant possesses feeling, 

 whereas it is enjoyed by all animal beings. 



Dr. B. You are very unfortunate in the choice of 

 your terms, for you could have scarcely found one that 

 has been used more indefinitely than feeling. If you 

 mean by it a consciousness of receiving impressions from 

 without, it is not peculiar to animals, for the motions 

 of many plants are determined by the impressions of 

 surrounding objects, in the same manner as those of a 

 multitude of Zoophytes. The Seaanernone when dis- 

 turbed, draws in its delicate feelers and retires as much 

 as possible within itself, with no more consciousness of 

 impending danger, than the sensitive plant, which, when 

 rudely touched, instantly closes its leaves. If you place 

 one of those soft, jelly-like beings, called by Naturalists, 

 Medusae, and by the sailors sea-nettles, sun-fish, &C.T 

 very abundant in our waters in the summer months, into 

 a vessel of water, and the light be permitted to fall only 

 on one side of the vessel, it will constantly turn in that 

 direction. So too if a plant be placed in a darkened 

 room in which a few rays are admitted by a single aper- 

 ture, its branches will imperceptibly move towards it. 

 Some plants close their flowers at the approach of rain ; 

 these medusae close themselves up from the same cause. 

 Thus you see that in this sense, feeling is no more an 

 universal characteristic of animals than voluntary motion. 



